Envy - Recitation

Veteran Japanese noisemongers in traditional English Christmas carol shocker! Well, not quite, but have a listen to the recurring guitar melody in ‘Rainclouds Running In A Holy Night’, the third song on offer here, and tell us it doesn’t remind you of ‘The First Noel’. Festive frivolity aside, ‘Recitation’ finds the band at their genre-bridging best, sounding, if anything, even more euphoric and life-affirming than before. Instrumental passages evoke the soaring grandeur of Mono and Explosions In The Sky, while at the opposite end of the spectrum, cuts like ‘Dreams Coming To An End’ exude pure fire and urgency. Outstanding.